Chris Souza
All Gratitude Being Mine

Chris Souza - All Gratitude Being Mine

Poetry
Chris Souza lives and works in Massachusetts. Previous publications include: Gulf Coast, Bellingham Review, Connecticut Review, New Delta Review, West Branch, and Laurel Review, among many others. Her… Read more »
JJ Mitchell
Dead Letter Drop

JJ Mitchell - Dead Letter Drop

Poetry
JJ Mitchell is an essayist who writes widely on environmental and socio-political issues for the Huffington Post and other publications. His poems have either appeared or are forthcoming in Tar River… Read more »
Leila Chatti
Narcissus Brings Me Flowers

Leila Chatti - Narcissus Brings Me Flowers

Poetry
Leila Chatti is a Tunisian-American poet and received her MFA in poetry from North Carolina State University. The recipient of fellowships from Dickinson House and Quest Writers Conference and awards… Read more »
Jessica Goodfellow
Nocturne without Counterexample

Jessica Goodfellow - Nocturne without Counterexample

Poetry
Jessica Goodfellow’s books are Mendeleev’s Mandala (Mayapple Press, 2015) and The Insomniac’s Weather Report (Isobar Press, 2014). Recipient of the Chad Walsh Poetry Prize from the Beloit Poetry… Read more »
Chris Harding Thornton
Providence

Chris Harding Thornton - Providence

Poetry
Chris Harding Thornton is a seventh-generation Nebraskan who writes fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. She holds a BFA in creative writing from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, an MFA in… Read more »
Peter LaBerge
Smoking Magnum, 1991

Peter LaBerge - Smoking Magnum, 1991

Poetry
Peter LaBerge is the author of the chapbook Hook (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2015), recently included on the American Library Association's Over the Rainbow List. His work appears in Beloit Poetry… Read more »
Merrill Oliver Douglas
Summer, in My Early Twenties

Merrill Oliver Douglas - Summer, in My Early Twenties

Poetry
Merrill Oliver Douglas lives in Vestal, NY, where she does freelance writing for trade magazines, university publications, businesses and nonprofits. She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an… Read more »
Lisa Grove
There Are More Storm Clouds than What You See Outside Your Window

Lisa Grove - There Are More Storm Clouds than What You See Outside Your Window

Poetry
Lisa Grove's poems and translations have appeared in Poetry, Beloit Poetry Journal, A cappella Zoo, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles, where she's a senior editor for the California Journal of… Read more »
Robyn Anspach
What Barren Means

Robyn Anspach - What Barren Means

Poetry
Robyn Anspach has an MFA from University of Michigan. She currently works as a data analyst at Google. Read more »

Smoking Magnum, 1991

Peter LaBerge

for Stacy Dillon


Cleveland, Tennessee: unmoving boy
and unrecovered gun. The silver

mouth of the .44, the chrome-plated
lip, the handle stained the color

of churchwood. 1991, down history’s throat
like a pill he might swallow to see

the beauty in girls. He fired
his lover’s name into the sky, stars

knocked out and strewn like teeth: one
beneath an end table, one behind

the bloodied couch. The unholy bullet
left his lover’s gun, knowing

it was to enter through the softness
of his cheek. Cleveland: no more

than a faceless boy and a body full of bone.
Read more »